OBLIVION is an interdisciplinary performance piece that integrates the body, dance, performative actions, living archives, video mapping, and digital technologies to create an immersive theatrical experience that actively engages the audience. The piece was developed by Colombian artist and choreographer Javier Blanco in 2025 in Córdoba as part of one of the residencies of the S+T+ARTS Buen TEK program, an initiative that promotes research and creation at the intersection of art, science, and technology.
The project emerged from a collaborative process involving artists and community members of different generations, who shared testimonies and memories related to the Cordobazo and the Argentine military dictatorship. Through the intersection of performing arts and contemporary technological tools, these narratives are transformed into performative material that reactivates collective memory through the body, imagery, and sensory experience.

OBLIVION approaches memory not as a static archive, but as a dynamic system that must be constantly reactivated to remain accessible and meaningful. In this sense, the project engages with the logic of computational systems, where memory is not a stable repository but an active process of maintenance and updating. Just as certain types of digital memory must be “refreshed” to prevent their degradation or loss, the work proposes a performative reactivation of historical memory that allows it to circulate in the present.

However, unlike digital systems—where refresh processes aim to preserve data integrity—in OBLIVION, reactivation necessarily entails transformation. Each update reconfigures narratives through the body, technological mediation, and audience participation, producing new layers of meaning and shifting the ways we relate to the past. Memory, in this context, operates as a living performative infrastructure rather than a static record.

Javier Blanco is a Colombian choreographer and stage director based in Berlin. His interdisciplinary practice integrates contemporary dance, performance, theater, and multidisciplinary arts, employing research-based methods and emerging technologies. From a Latin American and intersectional lens, he explores social, ecological, and political frameworks. Blanco’s work cultivates collaboration with communities and multisensory experiences, advancing experimental, relational, and hybrid performative strategies within contemporary art discourse.